Out Of This World

My alarm clock pulsed red light onto the walls as time struck the hour. It was two in the morning and Kim still wasn’t home. I pressed my forehead to the wall, willing her thoughts through the brick. Silence.

Plates clattered downstairs, obnoxiously interrupting my thoughts. Dad was entertaining a guest and I was trying terribly hard not to shout a string of obscenities at him on what he should hurry up and do to her. This was where entertaining was adult lingo for seducing and guest was codename for sexy single mum. I picked up Felix (my stress ball) and dug my nails into his eyes. Apparently I had mild anger management issues which Alice’s mum linked to an even milder form of Coprolalia. Thing is sunshine, I don’t have Tourette’s Syndrome. Motherfucking therapists. Fuck them all.

The bitter odour of burning rubber captivated my nostrils and I looked down to see Felix’s head on fire. Hastily I dropped him on the ground and stamped on his head. When the fire was out I picked Felix up and examined him for damage before opening the window and flinging him out. Just as I was about to close the window, a car door slammed. An army-green Jeep had stopped outside Kim’s house. I breathed a sigh of relief as Kim stepped out and an even bigger sigh of relief when I saw Aliceand not Jack-ass in the drivers seat.

Kim waved goodbye before slamming the door shut and walking round the side of her house. She was momentarily blocked from view as she walked along the hedge fence boarder lining our two properties. Suddenly her head bounced up over the hedges as she hoisted herself into the gum tree between our two bedrooms. I watched her climb to the three quarter mark where a branch conveniently led off to her window sill. Throwing one leg over she shimmied her way forward until the sill was within reach and thumped on the wooden frame. The window swung open and she pulled herself through the gap. Before the window could close I was sliding down the drainpipe and onto the side lawn. Fighting my way through the hedges I stuck my arms out and felt for the tree trunk. After finding it I mimicked Kim’s actions and knocked on her window. A harsh winter wind blew sending the eucalyptus leaves into a frenzy, resulting in them whipping my face. I knocked again, this time more demanding. The curtains parted and Kim’s expressionless face came into view. Seeing me there, fighting off the gum leaves brought a smile onto her face and quickly she opened the window.

Night time chats were one of our many traditions.

“Morning,” Kim yawned, stepping back to make way for me to get through. Placing my hands on the inside of her wall, I pulled myself through the window frame and landed hap-hazardly on her unmade bed.

“How was Jack?” I asked innocently, regaining my composure. Kim flopped down on the bed next to me and leaned her head against the wall.

“You were right…” she said it so quietly I thought I might’ve imagined it.

“Sorry, what was that?” I said tauntingly. She rolled her eyes at me. There was an unaccountable amount of satisfaction that came from teasing her.

“How was Isabelle?” she said, somewhat grudgingly. It annoyed me a bit, how she automatically hated every girl I was interested in. I think she felt used everytime I kissed her just so I could go kiss someone else. Not that I even did anything with Isabelle, we just talked.

“Great. Magnificent. Moaning and groa-“

“Alright! Don’t need to hear it mate!” she said, waving her hands in my face before pulling her knees upto her chest.

“I’m only joking Kimmy,” I said, tilting my head to see beneath her hair, “We just talked and stuff, it was nothing really. She’s nice,”

“Yeah, she seems it,” she said sincereley, her voice muffled by the loose cotton of her pajama pants. She lifted her head from her knees, “Whats happening at your place? I saw the downstairs lights still on.”

“Just dad entertaining a guest again,” I grummbled, “I don’t know how you did it Kimmy,”

“Did what?”

“Let your dad get married again,” I said, my face contorting into a look of disgust.

“It wasn’t so bad, once I got to know her,” she shrugged.

“Atleast Grace is your dad’s age, and she’s one of us, you know?” Kim shook her head,

“One of us?”

“She knows about us,” I explained, “She worked with the testing department and tried to make it stop. This new woman Dad’s got looks as if she wasn’t even born when all that happened.”

“Is she hot?” I stared at her. Sometimes, Kim’s thoughts really worried me.

“I don’t know. I came through the window. Why?” She shrugged.

“Meh…just trying to change the subject,” she mummbled. Kim hated talking about our mums. It scared her to death. I think she was worried that one day they’d find us and take us back to America for testing…ergh it was a horrible thought.

“Sorry,” I said quietly and looked at the ground.

“Its ok,” there was a brief silence as I watched her pick at a thread on her doona cover. “Why does it disturb you so much?” she inquired. My brow furrowed in thought.

“I really don’t know,” I said softly, gazing out the window as the downstairs lights flicked off and the ones in dad’s bedroom turned on. “I guess its just the thought of all that our mums sacrificed for us that makes me feel as if…sorta as if its my duty to keep her position, if that makes any sense.” I sighed as dad’s curtains were drawn, yet the guest’s car remained parked in the drive. “And the way dad goes through women now, it makes me wonder whether mum was any different.”

Kim’s frosty hand rested on my arm and suddenly the world was at peace.

“Ofcourse she was different,” she smiled, “She gave him you.”

I returned her smile before diverting my gaze back out through the window,

“I better go Kimmy, school tomorrow…” I yawned and stretched before embracing her in a quick, icy hug and stepping out the window. Swinging from the branch I let myself drop to the soft grass below, landing in a crouch.

“Night Ben,” she whispered,

“Night Kimmy.”